sound downgrade

I just wouldn't know. That amp is actually the best his four 20cm woofers will ever need and Amir better returns to ZG quarterly to seek advice for e.g. cd/power supply upgrades, rather than trying a more appropriate amp that doesn't seem to exist.

 

I recently doubled my amp power and feel it was worth it. On occasion I would find I was running out of puff, particuarly on movies. Now I can run to silly volumes and have loads of spare left on the volume dial. Maybe doubling power isn't equal to double the volume, but for me it seemed like a good 50% more.

 

Rest my case. Enjoy Paul.

 

Running out of steam isnt the same as sound quality. Just means you want to go louder but you run out of dial. In this case the issue is also of sound quality.

 

Yes of course. I was just replying to some negative opinions over doubling amp power, that's all. The more in reserve the better to a degree, imo.

 

Paul - My comment was addressed to erik. Indeed - I prefer a kilowatt myself

 

So your suggestion would be to move up from 400wpc to say 800wpc?

Where does this leave the 20wpc integrateds that produce some of the finest sounds available IMO?

Are you familiar with the audience range Paul out of interest?

 

Hold on. There's two parallel discussions going on here:

1. Amir wants better sound quality, not krell.
2. Doubling amp power *can* be useful.

I wasn't suggesting mr krell needed double the power! Your mixing the two together.

 

Ah I see Paul,

then maybe it would be helpful if you made that suggestion in a seperate thead, as this one is for helping Amir as far as I can tell.

 

I didn't start the split, I just replied if you look. I wouldn't be suprised if the best amp in the world turned out to be a diy thing with 2 watts. However that's just not for me and my music.

I still have some dynaudio audience speakers - lovely.

 

What's your type of music Paul?

The best hifi experience I have has was listening to an Underworld album on an 18wpc system. What you need is decent, efficient loudspeakers. Far too many of today's speakers present such an awkward load that they need hundreds of watts just to get them going. To me that is bad design, sorry.

 

I think someone else raised the topic of increasing the power first.

Even better - sensitive speakers AND huge power reserves.

However I feel swapping amps will solve the problem here.

 

I prefer "efficient" speakers sorry.

"Sensitive" speakers can still be a brute to drive, and need high powered amplification.

Many studio monitors seem to be like this, ATC, PMC etc. I guess in the professional arena watts are cheap. Good watts aren't though, so I prefer companies that keep an eye on the impedence and phase when designing for the domestic market.

 

I listen to a wide range, from old tunes like the stones, police, a little bit of 80's like sign o the times, to nirvana, underworld, new weird stuff like david holmes, boards of canada, rarely a little bit of my youth trance tunes, laid back things like eric clapton, even things like bjork. Not into classical, country, or blues. I only have two jazz cd's too. Mostly I'd say my tunes sound better loud, in a fun way. I don't often want a quiet listen.

 

I used to have 97 watts/metre sens speakers running a low-ish powered amp, so I've been there too.

I don't care how much power you have, it's what you NEED for the particular speakers in use. I chose my favorite speaker and then worked backward. If I need 2 watts per channel, then fine. If I need 1kw a side, then thats also fine. Just get whats appropriate for the speaker design.

It's not bad design, it just a different design. I bought a presentation that does it better than anything else for my taste. You will obviously like a different sound, so it's unlikely the gear you need will be identical.

 

Ah sorry, I did not see that you use the big PMC's.

You are right, I think we are looking for a different sound - although our music tastes are very similar.

 

I think even if two people listen to the same tune they may look for different things.

I get excited over the macro thing - the large scale energy, the vitality, the enthusiasm and drive, the whole atmosphere of it all.

Someone else may prefer the micro - all the inner details and emotions, subtle variations in the voice etc. I appreciate these aspects too, of course, but it's not everything to me. If you are a micro presentation kind of guy, then I guess you can use lower volumes and scale, so needing less bulky gear.

All the gear hinges from what your after in presentation: start with the music, then sort the speakers, then amp... it all fits into place easily taking it backwards, imo.

 

Efficient and sensitive are the same thing. You are talking about load which is related kinda but not the same thing. A difficult load will pull more power hence uping the measured senstivity.

Bryston have high quality watts and excellent driving capabilities - as shown by the spec. ;-)

 

Mind you, so do krell. The thing is he just doesn't like the sound of it, at any volume by the sound of it.

Another big amp to try is the Musical Fidelity KW. Not heard it, only it's good reputation.

 

Yes, but Dyn's present a though load and sound quality of this brand ('harsh and forward') is IME related to level of control (power and current). If forwardness is a treat of the amp then it should be changed, if not then the Dyn's need (even) more control.

Measurements specify 250W at@4 ohm vs 400W peak delivery. Dyn's dyp below 4 ohm within the first 200 Hz, and the millsecond duration of the peak might not be able to handle that. Which of course doesn't make it a weak amp, to the contrary, but it might not be enough in certain circumstances (e.g. for difficult rooms)

As a long time Dyn owner and after several (and more ) amp upgrades I just recommend to try a (even) more powerful amp and see what happens before looking into other solutions.